1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a computer program product, system, and method for selecting first data sets in a first storage group to swap with second data sets in a second storage group.
2. Description of the Related Art
A policy based storage management framework specifies how data having certain characteristics is associated with different pools of storage space that will store such data, as well as how the data will be managed throughout its lifecycle. A policy based storage management framework provides constructs including data classes, storage classes, and management classes that are used to select storage devices and settings for a data set based on the characteristics of the data set. A data class specifies data set logical attributes, such as data file type, record length, logical data storage space requirements, expiration and retention dates for the data, etc. A storage class defines a set of storage services, such as random access specifications, sequential access specifications, guaranteed space, performance criteria, etc. A management class specifies availability and retention management requirements for data, such as hierarchical storage management (HSM), expiration, backup frequency, retention of backup copies, etc.
An automatic class selection (ACS) routine receives a request to create or access a data set and then selects and assigns data, storage, and management classes that apply to the data set based on characteristics of the data set, e.g., application that generated data set, data set name, date, owner of data set and/or application, etc. The final selection is of a storage group based on the data, storage, and management classes assigned to the data set. The storage group provides the allocation of physical storage space for the data sets Data sets can be members of one data class, but be assigned to different storage and/or management classes, which determine to which storage group the data file is assigned.
The ACS routine may determine the storage group for a data set based on a name of the data set. For instance, the name of a data set may be tied to an application, and the name may be used to determine the storage group of a data set.